Electronic messages such as email messages are associated with one or more addresses which specify a recipient of the electronic message. The addresses may be individual addresses of individual recipients, or a group identifier or address depending on the type of electronic message. The type of address depends on the type of electronic message. For example, email messages have email addresses specifying one or more recipients of the email message. Similarly, text messages or short messaging service (SMS) messages have one or more telephone numbers specifying one or more recipients for the text message.
Users are typically provided an opportunity to specify one or more addresses associated with an electronic message during the composition of the electronic message. The addresses can be specified directly via user input or indirectly by selecting the recipient names or other information, for example, via an address book application. Manually inputting the addresses is time consuming, especially when inputting is required for frequently used contacts. Address book applications are useful; however, contact records in address books are typically presented alphabetically by name. Accordingly, users are often required to scroll through the address book to locate the recipient names and then select them. When a large number of contacts are stored in the address book, this process can be also be quite time consuming. Address book lookup operations may simplify this process somewhat, but such operations are often limited to name searches.
When placing a telephone call, users may select a phone number from a call log using a telephone application. A call log is a collection of numbers and/or contact names from which a call was recently received or to which a call was recently placed. A call log typically includes the telephone numbers and/or contact names for contacts saved in a user's address book as well as telephone numbers that are not in the user's address book. A user can place a telephone call to a recipient listed in the call log by selecting the corresponding entry in the call log. While useful, call logs are limited to telephone numbers and the entries in call logs are often limited in time (e.g., entries are purged after a predetermined duration) and scope (e.g., only contacts with telephone activity are listed).
In view of these and other deficiencies in message addressing, there remains a need for improved methods for addressing electronic messages.
Similar reference numerals may have been used in different figures to denote similar components.